EastOver Press is proud to announce the Spring 2027 publication of Black Abstraction by Tiffany Melanson. The poems in this collection confront both emotional and literal imprisonment, revealing the complex ways siblings are impacted by racial disparity and neglect.
Far removed from the neon pulse of Florida’s Atlantic Coast, the poems in Black Abstraction map a landscape of sun-scorched orange groves and the stillness of the Florida Springs. Here, amidst the inland scrub and humidity, Melanson explores the ways her family’s identity has been defined by the shadows of racial disparity, neglect, and a justice system designed to disappear Black men.
At the heart of this collection is a deeply personal reckoning: a sister’s journey to reclaim a relationship with her brother after his years of incarceration. Melanson navigates the difficult path in re-establishing their relationship, deftly exploring how literal and emotional imprisonment fracture sibling bonds and how estrangement can be overcome. Throughout these poems, Melanson uses the lens of visual art and the timeless sounds of the Blues to interrogate identity and familial bonds, finding new language for the grief and beauty that traditional narrative cannot hold.
These poems are more than a critique of an unjust system; they are an intimate study of forgiveness opening into hope. Black Abstraction is a powerful testament to the possibility of second chances, tracing the jagged path toward reconciliation as a sister and brother attempt to bridge immeasurable distances.
Tiffany Melanson is a poet and arts educator. In addition to Black Abstraction, she is the author of the audio chapbook What Happens (EAT Poems). Her poetry and short fiction have appeared in Poetry Magazine, Eco-Theo Review, Cutleaf Journal, Compose Journal, and Bridge Eight Magazine, among others. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best New Poets Anthology. She has been the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Hedgebrook Writer in Residence, a Peter Taylor Fellow at the Kenyon Writers Workshop, a Bennington Writing Seminars Alumni Fellow, and a Tin House writing resident. She was the Director of Creative Writing at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts for fourteen years where she also served as the faculty sponsor of the student literary journal Élan and co-director of the Douglas Anderson Writers’ Festival. She currently works as a Program Director at a non-profit devoted to equity in arts education.
